First Apex Legends update adds a chargey-uppy gun

You know a game’s good when it’s got me doing news about a single new gun. The first proper Apex Legends update has thrown Havoc into the ring, resulting in a thousand games journos writing variations of this sentence. (Apex, for those that have spent the past couple of weeks on Mars or something, is a free-to-play battle royale FPS from the Titanfall devs.)

The Havoc is an assault rifle that takes a moment to charge up, but apparently “once those Energy rounds start flying, their high damage, high velocity, and low bullet drop make up for having to wait.” Here is a trailer for the gun.

A trailer. For a gun. What have we become.

It’s the first weapon that can take one of two hop-ups, those special attachments that change the characteristics of a gun. Like the Devotion, popping on a turbocharger eliminates the spin-up time.

The second type is more interesting. Whacking on a selectfire receiver lets you swap to an additional fire mode, which launches chargey-uppy beams of light. Unlike literally every other weapon in the game, it’s both hitscan and has damage fall-off. That means you don’t need to lead your targets, but you do need to not be firing at them from the other side of the map.

If you want all the particulars, one of the devs has been enthusing about them on Reddit. Or you could check out Ollie’s Havoc guide, which is obviously the better choice.

Apelegs continues to enthral me. I foolishly decided to leave my house last night, making that the first evening where I haven’t played it when I could have. I feel like I’m already suffering withdrawal symptoms. Here are some of the words from the many, many positive words in my Apex Legends review:

“[Mirage’s] toolset harks back to the skulduggery I remember in Team Fortress 2, when I’d exclusively play the Spy. Combat ebbs and flows around the threats each champion brings to the table, a tactical layer over fluid movement that already imbues fights with a depth that other royales lack. It’s the kind of fighting that’s right up my alley – tricksy and mobile, intricate and tactical.”